


Virtual Community

by Hawkingjay



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: F/M, Internet fame and its consequences, Shipping, Youtuber AU, a surprising amount of angst, mentions of the bath bomb meme
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-10-13 18:17:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10519182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hawkingjay/pseuds/Hawkingjay
Summary: Evan learns that Jared has a surprisingly large fanbase on youtube and things just kind of spiral from there. He really can't complain, since he's gotten the attention of a cute musician...





	1. Sorry Australians

**Author's Note:**

> So I added the thumbnail. It's not my best photoshop work but I don't think Jared would do better, so...

_What up, Gay-mers? I’m Jared, and it’s a Tuesday. Unless you’re in Australia or something, in which case, fuck you. And because it’s Tuesday (again, fuck you, Australians), it means it’s time for one of my weekly videos. Today, we’re going to check in on my Sims family in my ongoing series: Are They Dead Yet?_

 

Evan was psyching himself up. He had been avoiding Jared’s youtube channel since Jared bought the DSLR he used to film the videos. He nodded politely when Jared asked if he watched the video, but he was lying. Now, he was headed over to Jared’s house at his mom’s request, so he couldn’t avoid Jared’s latest obsession.

 

Evan used his good hand to knock on the door. Jared opened the door almost instantly, and for once he looked actually excited to see Evan. He invited Evan inside with an excitement he was barely able to contain. Evan was going to ask what Jared wanted to do, but Jared didn’t give him the chance.

 

“So, I may have had an ulterior motive for inviting you here,” Jared said, trying and failing to play it cool.

 

“What is it?” Evan asked.

 

“You know how you sometimes come up in my videos?” Jared asked. Evan didn’t know about this, but admitting so would clue Jared in to the fact that Evan didn’t watch his videos. “Well, I was thinking maybe you could do a Q&A with my fans.”

 

Evan could feel a panic attack coming on. While he doubted Jared actually had the number of subscribers he claimed, Evan still didn't want to have his face all over the Internet.

 

“I, um, c-can we do something else?” Evan asked, trying to ignore the fact that he could hear his heartbeat. Jared didn’t respond right away. He just took in Evan’s face for a moment.

 

“You’re right, we definitely shouldn’t do the Q&A, at least not right now,” Jared said, “but would you be okay appearing in one of my regular videos? It doesn’t have to be a big thing.”

 

“What do you mean?” Evan asked.

 

“I just do what I was going to do for my next video, but you’re also there,” Jared said.

 

“Oh,” Evan said. “What’s your next video?”

_Jared: Well, this is anticlimactic._

_Evan: I don’t know what you expected. You took something that goes in a very large bowl of water and put it in a smaller bowl of water._

_Jared: I didn’t know toilets were filled with water._

_Evan: The color looks nice, though._

 

Upon seeing the finished product, Evan was relieved. He hadn't embarrassed himself, and the video was so boring that it probably wasn’t going to get many views anyway. So a few days after he went to Jared’s house, he was surprised when Jared rushed to him in the hallway.

 

“Dude, everyone in the comments is talking about you!” Jared shouted. Usually he was even more of an asshole at 8 AM, but he was abnormally peppy.

 

“M-me?” Evan asked.

 

“Well, you and the fact that I didn’t know toilets were filled with water,” Jared said, “They keep asking how I’m passing chemistry and/or still alive.”

 

“Why would they be commenting about me?”

 

“Well, I feel like it’s mostly the fact that you’re actually in a video instead of me talking about you,” Jared said, “but now we definitely have to do a Q&A!”

 

“I-” Evan started to reject the idea, but then he realized that he didn’t hate it as much as he did before. “I guess?”

  
“Awesome!” Jared said. He walked away as Evan stood there, wondering just what he’d gotten himself into.


	2. These are my confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Evan does a Q&A

Evan’s palms were sweaty. Which, of course, didn’t help with his anxiety, because all he could think of was that time that he was going to talk to Zoe at the jazz band concert, and what if Zoe saw the video and thought he was weird? Did Zoe watch youtube videos, or did she just post her covers? If Zoe knew that Evan watched her cover videos, would she think he was creepy?

 

“Do you need a paper bag?” Jared asked Evan. He just shook his head. Jared frowned. “You know, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

 

“No, I said I would--” Evan began, but Jared put a hand on his shoulder.

 

“Seriously, you don’t have to do this,” Jared said softly.

 

“Really?” Evan asked.

 

“I mean, if you’re uncomfortable, it’s not going to be a good Q&A,” Jared said. The kindness of his voice and gestures disappeared. Things like that would occasionally make Evan think that Jared just had trouble with serious emotions, but then he remembered that wasn’t the case. Jared was normal, unlike Evan. He was just a family friend, nothing more.

“I think I just need a second,” Evan said. He was trying his best to steady his breathing. It was an uphill battle, but he’d calm down eventually.

 

“Take your time,” Jared said, “do you want anything to drink?”

 

“Uh, water.” Evan said. Jared nodded. 

 

Evan tried a few different things to try to slow his heart rate and make his head stop spinning. Dr. Sherman talked to him about a breathing exercise at his last appointment.  In, two, three, four. Hold, two, three, four. Out, two, three, four. Gradually increase the amount of time you spend on each step until you feel like you can stop.

 

Evan felt like he was dying.

 

No matter what he did, it wouldn’t work. So he went with what was slowly becoming his default coping mechanism. He knew Jared would make uncomfortable jokes about it, but he didn’t care. He pulled out his phone and opened a video.

 

_ So, I don’t play piano that often, because I’m better at guitar and honestly I just like guitar more, but I just felt like this song was better on piano. _

 

In the video, Zoe Murphy was playing a slow song on an electric piano in a room that Evan couldn’t quite place. It was odd how the calm and focus Zoe showed in the video somehow transferred over to Evan. It felt like nothing mattered other than the song she was playing. Of course, it was inevitable that Evan be snapped back to reality.

 

“Please don’t jerk off in my house,” Jared said. He was badly hiding his grin, but Evan still felt really uncomfortable.

 

“I- I wasn’t,” Evan said, trying to sound convincing because he was telling the truth. Jared chuckled, and Evan realized that Jared was messing with him. “It just helps me calm down.”

 

“You’re digging yourself deeper, Evan,” Jared said, “but I guess it’s better than the tree fetish.” Evan had slowly figured out that Jared’s comments about his “weird tree thing” were a joke, but the fact that he still made the jokes despite Evan’s discomfort didn’t bode well for their friendship.

 

“Can we just get started?” Evan asked. Jared nodded. He dropped the grin almost instantly.

 

“So I sent out a tweet about it,” Jared said, his face suddenly glued to his phone. “Now we just wait and check the tag.”

 

“Oh, good,” Evan said, fixing his eyes on the floor, “waiting.”

“Well, in the meantime, maybe you can help with setup?” Jared asked.

 

“Yeah! I just, y’know, well, I, uh, haven’t done set up before,” Evan said.

 

“It’s okay,” Jared said, “I’ll tell you what you need to do.”

 

It was odd to see Jared being serious. Evan saw him making faces that he’d only seen on the shorter boy when he was playing a boss level of a video game. Jared was very careful, even in the way he talked to Evan. It was both refreshing and unsettling. Jared made the final changes to the camera’s position before jumping in front of it.

_ Jared: What up, gaymers? I saw your comments on the toilet bath bomb video. I’ve yet to die of stupidity as some of you said I would, so suck it. Also, a weird amount of you like Evan, so I brought him back for a Q&A with your questions via twitter. Should we get started? _

 

_ Evan: I guess? _

 

_ Jared: @fuckyoujared (love the twitter handle) asked: why haven’t you been in any videos before? _

 

_ Evan: I don’t know. I guess I didn't really have a reason to until Jared asked me. _

 

_ Jared: I provide quality content, what can I say. @monchncronch asked: have you ever eaten a bath bomb? _

 

_ Evan: no… have you? _

 

_ Jared: I plead the fourth. _

 

_ Evan: isn’t the expression ‘I plead the fifth’? _

 

_ Jared: whatever. _

 

They continued like that for a few more minutes. Before Evan knew it, Jared mentioned that he had enough material for a video. They hung out for a bit, Evan doing homework and Jared playing video games, before Heidi texted Evan to go home.

The next day, Evan didn’t really see Jared. He could occasionally catch a glimpse of Jared in the hallway, but Jared was glued to his phone as he sped through the halls. Of course, it wasn’t great for Evan’s confidence.

 

All Evan could think about for the first half of the day was how he had made a huge mistake. God, Jared was probably getting cyberbullied while Evan sat in economics none the wiser. Evan was a mess when he headed to the library, where he bumped into Jared. Jared was beaming, which Evan was hoping meant he wasn’t being cyberbullied.

 

“Dude!” Jared said. “You’re the best thing to happen to my youtube channel!”

 

“Really?” Evan asked.

 

“Yeah, my subscriber count has gone up like crazy,” Jared said, “and people loved your Q&A.”

 

“Wow!” Evan said, “this is amazing.”

 

“One complaint, though,” Jared said. The smile hadn’t left his face, “it’s tacky to send confessions about yourself to those youtuber confession tumblrs.”

  
“What?” Evan asked. He had no idea what Jared was talking about. Trying to hold a straight face, Jared held up his phone, which had an image on it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured I might as well add some setup for Zoe, who's going to be appearing soon! Also re: names of channels and websites, I have no idea what's there. I'm just making this up as I go.

**Author's Note:**

> It's fitting that this is being posted on April 1, because if you think it's going to be just cute shenanigans than April Fool's!


End file.
